


A Date With The Ocean

by ImperatrixFortuna



Series: An Oceanic Romance [2]
Category: Nobilis - Jenna Moran
Genre: Also a whirlwind tour of an underwater kingdom, And talking about sex and godly power, Coffee date, F/F, Kissing, Trans Characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:21:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29351112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperatrixFortuna/pseuds/ImperatrixFortuna
Summary: After a sexual encounter in a nightclub which involved a lot more touching than talking, Foxglove works up the nerve to call the girl she's pretty sure is the goddess of the ocean. Maybe they can go out for coffee?
Series: An Oceanic Romance [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2155986
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	A Date With The Ocean

**Author's Note:**

> The preceding work in this series is more or less pure smut, and an effort has been made but may not have been successful to ensure it's not needed for context to enjoy this work. Hopefully you enjoy regardless.

A phone rang. And again. And again. On the fifth ring, someone picked it up, a little breathless. "Hello, this is Annette's phone."

"Hi. We, uh, met at the club a few nights ago? You gave me your number?"

"Oh. *Oh*." A moment's pause. "Uh, yeah. I did. Listen, I am so sorry-"

"I, uh, I was wondering if we could meet up."

"Meet up?"

"Like, for coffee, or something? I, uh. I'd like to see you again. If that's okay."

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I could do coffee."

Audible relief made its way into the tone. "Yeah. Okay. I was thinking maybe the place like two doors down from the club? I don't know if that works for you, or-"

"Um, what about, do you know the one on the beach? Like, not by the beach, the one that's right down over the beach?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. Yeah, okay. I guess that makes sense."

"Yeah, uh. Yeah. What time is good?"

"Does one-thirty tomorrow work?"

"Yeah, okay. I can do that. Uh, see you there?"

"Yeah."

* * *

The place was called Ocean View Coffee, in one of history's great feats of naming. Foxglove had opinions on names, having gone to some trouble to pick out her own, and she thought the owners here had a lot of work to do to catch up to her level. The prices were kind of ruinous, too. The weather was cloudy and the wind was starting to pick up, which at least meant the balcony was empty except for her, and she had an excuse to wear her good leather jacket. She'd arrived ten minutes early, dithered over whether to order for herself or not, and finally got a long black filled with sugar that she was sipping as slowly as possible, to draw out her five dollars. Now she was watching the sea with a feeling she was pretty sure qualified as 'yearning'.

When the wave came up to the balcony's edge, she jumped, actually halfway to her feet to dodge back before she realized there was someone stepping out of it. 'Annette', she'd said on the phone; the name was less familiar than the face, which she didn't think she'd be able to forget for her whole life. She was dressed casually, almost the same jeans as Foxglove and a boring T-shirt to match hers, although without a leather jacket, and somehow she was completely dry, the wave vanishing under her feet as suddenly as it had arrived. She spotted Foxglove and gave an embarrassed smile, stepping over to greet her. Foxglove wrestled down an impulsive desire to kiss her.

"Hi. Um, I'm Annette. You must be..." she hesitated for a moment.

"Foxglove."

"Oh!" She cast about a little for a response. "That's a neat name."

"Thanks, I picked it myself." They shared a better smile at the shared old joke, Foxglove grinning only slightly desperately, Annette warmer and less self-conscious. "I already ordered, sorry, I got here early."

Annette nodded. "I'll just do that too."

There wasn't a line, and soon they were seated across from each other. Annette still seemed a little anxious, and Foxglove was still fighting not to throw herself across the table, so she grabbed the first line of conversation she could think of. "So, uh. Gods are real, then?"

Annette blushed. "Uh, yeah. Kind of. Not exactly how you might be thinking, but yeah. They call me Ocean's-Regal, or the Queen of Salt Waters. That," she waved out at the ocean, "is my job. Or my life, I guess. It's a little complicated."

"I am so jealous."

Annette blushed harder. "Yeah, it's kind of amazing. I, uh. There's downsides, but it's worth it."

"Do you have any positions open?" Annette wilted a little, and Foxglove hurried on, "It's okay if you don't, I'm not - this isn't about that, I just. I was just making conversation. Sorry. I'm not, like, using you for divine favours or anything."

"I mean. You could use me for divine favours a little bit."

The arrival of Annette's coffee put a stop to the conversation for a moment, and Annette took a slow, careful sip before she said more. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed, I just... this is the first time I've ever come out as a goddess, you know? It's a bit different from the other kinds."

"It's fine, I get it. I don't... I don't want to trick you into making me immortal, or anything. I just want..." she blushed and stopped before she could finish that sentence aloud. "I just wanted to get to know you a little. I had a really good time the other night."

"Really?" Annette was searching Foxglove's eyes, looking a little worried again.

"Uh, yeah. I kind of can't stop thinking about it."

"Oh, no, I'm sorry, I can, I think I can fix that, I-"

"No, it's, uh, it's okay, it's not a problem. I don't mind wanting to spend time with you, I just. Want to spend time with you. If you're okay with that."

Annette blushed again. "Are you sure?"

"I mean, if you know any other pretty girls our age who happen to be queen of the ocean and also gay I'll take recommendations, but yeah, I'm pretty sure."

Annette stirred her coffee absently. "I'll let you know if I meet any." She took another sip. "What about you? I feel like I should know more about you than your name and your crush on me and, uh, how your cock feels inside me before I commit to anything."

Foxglove stopped and thought for a moment. "Well, I'm twenty-one. I'm studying philosophy. I live with my sister because my parents are rural and I didn't want to flat with randoms. Uh, I like flowers, I used to help out in the garden, I've got some African violets in a pot at home. I wanted to grow foxgloves but my sister has a cat and she's afraid she'd eat them and, you know, get sick. I like cats but more for visiting than for keeping. Uh. Yeah, I dunno. Nobody's really good at talking about themselves, right?"

"I used to think so, but there are people I could introduce you to..."

"Like, god-people?"

"Some of them. One of them's actually this merman, he's the prime minister of the Pacific waters, he's really big in merfolk politics. The first time I visited a merfolk city he caught the current in like five minutes and showed up to give me the grand tour in person, talking about how everything was his big idea or he'd saved it from disaster."

"Wait, merfolk? Like, for real?"

Annette looked a little taken aback. "Uh, yeah. They're kind of secretive, there's this whole thing about not telling people about the wrong kinds of magic and they don't want to get involved in that so they stay way down deep and don't mess with us, but yeah. I could show you, if you want."

Foxglove looked at the ocean again, for the first time since Annette had arrived, and knew she couldn't possibly say no. She barely managed to ask, "Is it safe?"

Annette smiled, self-consciousness falling completely away for just a moment. "It is when you're with me."

* * *

They ended up at Annette's place, which turned out to mean a literal undersea castle. They'd stepped off the balcony of the coffee shop together, hand in hand, Annette a little ahead and tugging Foxglove along. The first moment of breathing water instead of air had been incredible, and they'd lingered near the shore for a while as Foxglove got a crash course in swimming. Then Annette had called up a current and they'd been away on a whirlwind (whirlpool?) tour of half a dozen merfolk cities that Foxglove couldn't pronounce. (Apparently merfolk favoured tonal languages with a lot of subtle vowel variation; after three goes where she couldn't get closer than 'Aovara', which Annette assured her through a smile that was visibly fighting to be kind rather than laughing was not quite right, Foxglove had given up.) They'd hardly slowed down, whisking around grand architecture and tiny poky streets that were more like tunnels with the same breakneck speed. Once, Foxglove was pretty sure she'd caught sight of a statue of Annette out of the corner of her eye, but then they'd been whisked away again.

They'd only stopped twice; once for food from a street vendor, fish wrapped in seaweed and cooked in a stream of heated smoky water like an artificial hydrothermal vent, and once at a jewelry store, where Annette insisted on buying her a fancy hairpin in coral and amethyst. If 'buying' was the right word; Foxglove wasn't sure what exactly had happened, but money hadn't changed hands at all. Instead Annette had swept her hands around like she was spreading out a bundle of threads she pulled down from above, and then hurried them away with their prizes after only a few more words were exchanged. Foxglove assumed it was some sort of blessing, and tried not to feel strange about that; if she could journey halfway around the world underwater, it seemed silly to wonder whether the blessings actually did anything. After the hairpin they'd spent some time in more natural areas of the sea, just drifting along coral reefs or through kelp forests. They'd talked about books and movies, when they weren't watching the scenery; at one point, Foxglove had hummed the first few notes of 'I Can Show You The World', and they'd both broken down giggling.

Then Foxglove had happened to mention orcas, and Annette had promptly whisked her away to meet some; after a quick conversation with Annette, they'd settled in to play a game where Foxglove or Annette held on to a dorsal fin and the orca did dizzying twists and flips to try to throw them off. Apparently they were competing to see who could throw off a human the fastest, although Foxglove privately suspected there were separate rankings for her and Annette. By the time they were done Foxglove's arms were aching, and Annette said the orcas needed to hunt, so she made that blessing gesture again and the whales nuzzled them both and then, shockingly quickly, they were drifting alone in the water. They'd surfaced, not too far from where they'd started, and watched the sun begin to set over the open ocean.

"We could go back to mine, if you want," Annette had said. Foxglove had been struck by the urge to kiss her again, so she'd just nodded, in case she said something stupid if she opened her mouth. They'd dived together, and a current had carried them away, and Foxglove had only caught the barest glimpse of an actual fairytale castle made of coral before they'd been swept in through a grand window and deposited in a room filled with cushions in a bewildering rainbow of colours and not much else. Now Annette was flopping dramatically into a pile of them, while Foxglove poked tentatively at them, trying to figure out what they were made of.

"So? What do you think?"

Foxglove took a breath to steady herself, which only half-worked because she was struck again by what a weird experience breathing water was. "You live in an actual fairytale castle," she managed.

Annette looked a little hurt. "I mean, sometimes, yeah. When I want to impress people. I don't actually sleep here most nights, but I thought you might like it better than an apartment."

"I mean, I guess?" Foxglove settled herself on a bright orange cushion. "I don't know. It's just a little much."

Annette didn't say anything, but she looked if anything more hurt. Foxglove sighed and pushed herself off from the floor to sit next to her instead of across the room. "I'm sorry," she said. "This is just... I'm a bit overwhelmed, and I thought we were done with weird for the day. This is okay. We can stay here."

Annette settled her head on Foxglove's shoulder with a sigh. Almost automatically, Foxglove's hand come up to stroke her short hair. "It's okay. I'm sorry I overwhelmed you. I was just so excited to share everything, since you... since you seem to like me. I was kind of afraid you'd never want to see me again. I guess I overreacted a bit."

They sat like that for a few moments. Finally Foxglove said, "You seem different from the other night. You have all day, actually. Like, you're cute, and I keep wanting to kiss you, but I don't..." she gestured, vaguely.

Annette blushed and ducked her head. "You don't feel the urge to fuck me from behind in public?"

Foxglove also blushed. "I mean, that too, yeah. But it's more like... you seem more like a princess and less like a queen, I guess? Like you're so much less sure of yourself. Maybe it's just the mystique is gone now I've really met you."

But Annette shook her head. "No, I know what you mean. It's... I didn't really want to talk about it, but I should. It's a thing that happens sometimes. Like, I'm Annette, right? But there's a part of me that's the ocean, too. And when people see that part, they... respect me. Like meeting the ocean instead of Annette, you know? And I... kind of feel that way, as well, like I'm not just me, I'm this ancient thing that's huge enough to swallow continents and old enough to remember when the world was forged in fire. It's a real confidence booster." Her tone turned bitter on the last sentence, and she didn't raise her eyes.

Foxglove thought about that for a moment. "I mean, it's totally hot." Annette made a frustrated noise and pushed away from her, but Foxglove said "No, I'm serious" and she stopped, turning back to look while she was already in motion, with the result that she came to rest seated on the windowsill. Foxglove took a breath. "Like, I like you, but the look in your eyes when you picked me out of the crowd? I don't even have words for it, it was... fuck, it was amazing." Annette was turning away again, but Foxglove pressed on. "Like, I could feel you were special and amazing, but that wasn't the good bit. Like, it didn't make me feel less special? It made me feel more. It made me feel like I was this, this priestess doing something holy just by looking at you. Like when I kissed your feet it wasn't because I wasn't worthy or whatever, it was because even doing that much was glorious, was special. Like touching you, tasting you, made us both more holy." She trailled off. Annette was watching her with an unreadable expression, and she shrugged a little. "When we met up today, I could've said 'so magic is real'. But I said 'gods' instead. There was a reason for that."

Annette was silent for a few moments longer. Then she said, "Is that why you called? Because you thought it would be holy?"

Foxglove shook her head. "Not really. I knew... I knew I wanted to talk to you, to try to get to know you. I knew I still wanted you. But I kind of thought maybe the really holy thing was just that night, that place, that time. Like, maybe you only get one shot at it, you know? I was okay with that. I'm still okay with it. If you drop me on the beach right now I'll walk away and you'll never have to see me again. I won't even go back in the water if you don't want me to. But I'd like to stay. If you want me to."

Annette nodded, and looked down at the floor. Then she looked up again. "Do you still want to kiss me?"

"Oh, _fuck_ yes."

Before she could close her mouth, still finishing the last sound of her words, Annette was across the room and there, lips locked on hers, not pressing further but absolutely, determinedly present.

It wasn't a long kiss, but it was a good one, and Annette came out of it with a smile that was somewhere between shy and smug. "My bedroom's just down the hall. We could try it without the goddess voice, if you want."

Foxglove hesitated just long enough to think it over, then smiled with a little nod. On reflection, she really did.


End file.
